I cant get my tortoise to eat anything other than aloe

[samercer]

Obviously this is not ideal as from what I understand they need a mixed diet. I have had her 12 days and she does seem to eat the dehydrated stuff from petsmart you have to add water to but based off her poop "gross, sorry" id say shes only eating the carrots. I bought some different leafy mix bags from meijer... wouldn't touch it. so today I bought her aloe,kale,some type of weed they can eat, and collard greens. I wanted to get her cactus but i dont know if its just certain kinds and no one else in this store speaks English she literally sniffed and rubbed her face in all the leaves then took the aloe and just ate that. only a few bites not the whole thing. this is only the second time i have seen her eat. im at a bit of a loss because i dont want a sick tortoise from the bat and i have 2 more days to take her back to petsmart and go to a breeder instead but i dont want to because its not her fault petsmarts idiots is this normal? how much do tortoises usually eat? all she does is burrow :/

 

[Jacqui]

First relax a bit, nothing to get too stressed out over. What kind of a tortoise did you get? Sorta guessing a Russian perhaps? She is under stress, so that needs to be factored in. If it's a Russian, she is under further stress with this being the time of year for them to start thinking brumation. Now it's going to help, if you tell us all about how your keeping her. The day high/lows and the night lows for temps. What amount of light (hrs on) and what kind is it.

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Ooppsss think I misread your question. She is eating, but only the prepared pellets? If that is it, then are you finely chopping up the "good" stuff and only placing a small amount of good stuff percentage wise to the "bad" stuff. Then slowly over the following days and weeks, add a higher and higher percentage of the good to the bad.

 

[samercer]

First relax a bit, nothing to get too stressed out over. What kind of a tortoise did you get? Sorta guessing a Russian perhaps? She is under stress, so that needs to be factored in. If it's a Russian, she is under further stress with this being the time of year for them to start thinking brumation. Now it's going to help, if you tell us all about how your keeping her. The day high/lows and the night lows for temps. What amount of light (hrs on) and what kind is it.

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Ooppsss think I misread your question. She is eating, but only the prepared pellets? If that is it, then are you finely chopping up the "good" stuff and only placing a small amount of good stuff percentage wise to the "bad" stuff. Then slowly over the following days and weeks, add a higher and higher percentage of the good to the bad.

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Tootsie is a Russian. I have no idea what brumation is but ill go look that up once im done with this post. shes currently not eating much of anything other than the aloe i found today. sometimes she eats the freeze dried veggies from petsmart which they were feeding her. during the day her basking spot is about 95 and the rest of her tanks about 80-90. at night i just turn off all the lights we have the heat on so it stays at about 75. i do seem to have some issues with humidity being to low during the day "about 50%" and too high at night "about 70-80". i try to follow the 12 hours on 12 hours off schedule but sometimes her lights are on a little longer. she does have her uv light bar as well. she is in a glass breeder tank but i put wallpaper on the outside as border so she doesn't run into the glass. We also took fans out of computers and custom build them onto her tank so she has good air circulation with little sound and hardly any breeze going thru the tank to make her cold. This is a temporary home until we can build her something better. i also have a soaking/drinking dish for her which she does use and i soak her so she is well hydrated. she has a hiding spot lots of substrate and kettle? bone "that white thing for birds". I dont know what kind of bulbs they are

 

[Spn785]

Obviously this is not ideal as from what I understand they need a mixed diet. I have had her 12 days and she does seem to eat the dehydrated stuff from petsmart you have to add water to but based off her poop "gross, sorry" id say shes only eating the carrots. I bought some different leafy mix bags from meijer... wouldn't touch it. so today I bought her aloe,kale,some type of weed they can eat, and collard greens. I wanted to get her cactus but i dont know if its just certain kinds and no one else in this store speaks English she literally sniffed and rubbed her face in all the leaves then took the aloe and just ate that. only a few bites not the whole thing. this is only the second time i have seen her eat. im at a bit of a loss because i dont want a sick tortoise from the bat and i have 2 more days to take her back to petsmart and go to a breeder instead but i dont want to because its not her fault petsmarts idiots is this normal? how much do tortoises usually eat? all she does is burrow :/

Are you asking if its normal for the people at a pet store to be idiots? Generally speaking (at least when it comes to toroises) I would say yes. JK Anyway, it is normal for tortoises to be stressed and a bit picky of their food. Chop it all up finely and mist with water and give it to him/her that way. They should start (eventually) to eat it that way.